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Warlocks
Warlocks, the equivalent to mages,Aaron Rosenberg on Twitter are magical practitioners who seek to understand darker, fel-based magics, including destructive spells. While many warlocks willingly follow the Burning Legion, a destructive army from beyond the stars, there are those who work against it, using their magic to fight against evil. Warlocks have proven themselves to be powerful allies—as well as powerful foes.Ultimate Visual Guide pg. 21 Background File:Acolyte Demia.jpg|Acolyte Demia: "Whenever a warlock starts talking about sharing the wealth, I opt to be a pauper." - Timmo Shadestep File:Demonic Knowledge.jpg|Demonic Knowledge:"Everything has a cost. Everything." - Plague Fleshbane Warlocks are the most volatile and insatiable of spellcasters. Though they often pledge themselves to the service of noble causes and are not innately evil, their desire to understand darker magics and exercise unwavering command over demonic forces breeds mistrust among even their closest allies.World of Warcraft > Legion Class Preview Series: Warlock In the face of demonic power, most heroes see death. Warlocks see only opportunity. Dominance is their aim and they have found a path to it in the dark arts, which is of necromancy. These voracious spellcasters banish demonic beings to fight beside them. At first, they command only the service of imps, but as a warlock’s knowledge grows, seductive succubi, loyal voidwalkers, and horrific felhunters join the dark sorcerer’s ranks to wreak havoc on anyone who stands in their master’s way.World of Warcraft > Game Guide > Classes > Warlock File:Hateful Infernal.jpg|Hateful Infernal: Where they fall, they leave only destruction. File:Frenzied Felhound.jpg|Frenzied Felhound: Even seasoned warlocks find the completely alien nature of felhounds unsettling. File:Sigil of the Legion.jpg|Sigil of the Legion: This fel magical sigil empowers the demonic followers of Sargeras in their Burning Crusade. Demons had been formed as a result of the Light and Void energies that had bled together at the borders of the Twisting Nether,World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 pg. 37 on iBooks an astral dimension separate from the physical, living realm of existence known as the Great Dark Beyond.World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 pg. 21 on iBooks The demons embraced their furious passions and reveled in pushing the boundaries of their power, heedless of the consequences. Many of these abberations indulged in the highly volatile energy that pervaded the Nether and some learned to wield the all-consuming powers of fel magic,World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 pg. 39 on iBooks a destructive form of magic often used by members of the Burning Legion,Ultimate Visual Guide pg. 21 a vast demonic army created by the fallen titan Sargeras, dark god of chaotic magic, to scour all creation. File:Archimonde the Defiler.jpg|Archimonde the Defiler: "Tremble, mortals, and despair! Doom has come to this world!" File:Eredar Deathbringer.jpg|Eredar Deathbringer: The eredar were once a peaceful race before succumbing to the dark promises and "gifts" of Sargeras. File:Kil'jaeden the Deciever.jpg|Kil'jaeden the Deceiver: "Chaos! Destruction! Oblivion!" Believing that the eredar, a magically gifted race, would be a crucial component in his dark quest to undo all of creation, Sargeras contacted the eredar’s three leaders – Kil’jaeden, Archimonde, and Velen – and offered them knowledge and power in exchange for their loyalty. Only Velen abstained, for he had seen a vision. In it, his people were transformed into demons, and they joined the ranks of Sargeras’ Burning Legion: an army of unspeakable evil that would grow vast and decimate life on countless worlds. With the aid of the naaru, benevolent energy beings who had resolved to combat the fallen titan’s nihilistic crusade, Velen gathered other like-minded eredar and narrowly escaped Argus. Forever after, these renegades would call themselves the draenei, or “exiled ones.”World of Warcraft > Game Guide > Races > Draenei On Argus, Sargeras bent the other eredar to his unholy will. Fanatical fel whisperings surged through the minds of the world's inhabitants, drowning out their ability to reason. Sargeras also infused with fel energies, twisting their forms to resemble hideous demons. Sargeras found quick use for his new fel-corrupted converts. The eredar settled in as commanders within the Burning Legion. Kil'jaeden and Archimonde would stand as the most gifted and powerful among them.World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 pg. 103-104 on iBooks Born of the Eredar race, warlocks are absolutely corrupt and unimaginably powerful. Their chaos magics have burnt out whole worlds and annihilated countless species over the aeons. Under Archimonde's command, the warlocks serve as the Legion's tacticians and strategists.Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Game Manual - Warlock Dark Practices File:Bazul, Herald of the Fel.jpg|Bazul, Herald of the Fel: "Our lord gives us many gifts, but I prefer to take mine from you instead." File:Uzak'zim.jpg|Uzak'zim: "Earth, fire, air, water - what hope do dey have when dey stand against da demonic fel magic?" Warlocks of the fel are diviners of disorder. Peering into the Void without hesitation, they leverage the chaos they glimpse within to devastating ends in battle—their greatest abilities are fueled by the souls they’ve harvested from their victims. Devoid of Order, which is most commonly perceived in reality as arcane magic, Disorder is manifested as highly destructive fel magic. This brutal and extremely addictive energy is fueled by drawing life from living beings.World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 pg. 17 on iBooks Please Note: Void would be chaotic because energies, naturally, want to spread out and become messy, but Matt Burns thinks there are exceptions to that rule when it comes to Warcraft power since it's magic. Affliction "'''It's hard to think about anything else when they're tearing at your thoughts.'" - Deacon Markus Hallow''WoW TCG Card: Drain Will File:Undead Warlock using Life Tap.jpg|Life Tap: When the dark arts call for flesh, you can only trust your own. File:Shred Soul.jpg|Shred Soul: The truest agony goes deeper than mere flesh and bone File:Drain Mana.jpg|Drain Mana: Tremendous power comes from a warlock's ability to sustain complex rituals. Affliction warlocks are masters of shadow-touched powers, but unlike mages of the arcane—diviners of secrets—World of Warcraft > Legion Class Preview Series: Mage these warlocks delight in using using fel forces to cause intense pain and suffering in others. They revel in corrupting minds and agonizing souls, leaving enemies in a state of torment that would see them undone in due time. Even the most battle-hardened warriors can be deceived, landing blow after blow against the warlock, only to succumb to their suffering as their very vitality is siphoned away by the dark spellcaster.World of Warcraft > Legion Class Preview Series: Warlock Demonology File:Demonic Soulstone.jpg|Demonic Soulstone: "You're done when I say you're done." - Victor Baltus File:Unholy Power.jpg|Unholy Power: "It is a tricky task to give a minion your power without relinquishing your soul in the process." - Pidge Filthfinder File:Banish Soul.jpg|Banish Soul: "Your body may rest, but your soul will be tortured for all eternity." -Tyrus Blackhorn By their very nature, demons are leeches on the living universe—but the demonologist has mastered harnessing the power of these malefic beings on the field of battle. Warlocks harvest the souls of their defeated enemies; those specialized in the ways of demonology use this life essence to tap into the Void, pulling all manner of abomination from the chaos of the Twisting Nether. While such a practice is often considered by outsiders to be wicked and reckless, the demonologist maintains absolute control over the summoned creatures. These malignant entities are fully beholden to—and empowered by—the will of the warlock, until banished to the realm from whence they came. File:Rulrin.jpg| File:Eye of Kilrogg.jpg| File:Curse of Doom TCG.jpg| Please Note: The Twisting Nether is an astral dimension separate from the physical realm of existence. Because demons are from the Nether, demons would be non-physical entities - spirits without a physical body (which are undead). The implication of physical entities existing in a non-physical place is that the physical can exist within non-physical beings such as spirits - entities composed of spiritual energy. Despite knowing that the Twisting Nether is separate from the physical realm of existence though, Matt Burns—Writer at Blizzard Entertainment—stated that he believes there are some physical stuff in the Twisting Nether when he was asked if demons are non-corporeal spirits because demons are from the Twisting Nether.Matt Burns on Twitter He presumably stated this because warlocks would be necromancers. File:Banish.jpg|Banish: When you draw power from demons, it's a good idea to have a backup plan in case they disagree. File:Demonic Torrent.jpg|Demonic Torrent: "They don't call it the Legion for nothing." - Skodis the Nethertwister File:Nether Rift.jpg|Nether Rift: "These runes suggest the presence of even greater demonic powers." - Vakeron Additionally, demonic power (or warlock magics)Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos Game Manual - Lethargy and Internment would be an astral or necromantic/spiritual power that exists in — and is derived from — the Twisting Nether because demons are from the Twisting Nether. However, when asked if warlocks were perhaps harnessing their power from the Twisting Nether, Sean Copeland—Blizzard's Lead Historian—lied and stated, "No. That'd be magi...".The archive of lore tweets from Loreology File:Drain Soul.jpg|Drain Soul: "Give yourself to me." - Mistress Nesala File:Soul Shard.jpg|Jar Soul: It does not reflect the face of the viewer, but rather the face of the soul trapped within. File:Soulbond.jpg|Soulbond: "You'll do as I say, even if it means the death of you." Jeremy Feasel—Game Designer at Blizzard Entertainment—states that warlocks steals souls but don't control souls, implying that stealing a soul doesn't entail controlling where the soul goes.Jeremy Feasel on Twitter When he was asked if the warlocks' haunt, soul swap, and soulstone ability are non-canon since he believes warlocks don't control souls, he stated, "Of course you use souls, you have soul shards. You dont use them to raise the dead though."Jeremy Feasel on Twitter Eventually, Feasel claimed it's ok to have your own definition of necromancy. Control of souls vs. raising soulless UD.Jeremy Feasel on Twitter Undead can't be soulless however because the undead do have souls: The souls of the undead are imperfectly attached to their bodies though; the dark magic that sustains them is a buffer that prevents their souls from properly joining with their bodies. This is why undead feel only faint sensations of pain or discomfort from most physical stimuli, and why the Light is so painful to their existence. The primary exception to this rule are liches, as liches bind their souls to a phylactery and then use the phylactery to generate a physical form; this process is why lich bodies look nothing like their mortal bodies, and also why you have to destroy a lich’s phylactery to truly kill them.Lore posts from Blizzard sources - Nyorloth File:Demonic Infusion.jpg|Demonic Infusion: It's nowhere near as painful as it looks. It's much, much worse. File:Enslaved Abyssal.jpg|Enslaved Abyssal: Those types of friendships never last long. File:Infernal.jpg|Infernal: The master of every infernal worries not about its death, but that it might survive too long. The souls of demons are tethered to the Twisting Nether, similarly to how the souls of liches are bound to phylacteries. To truly destroy a demon's spirit, the creature must be killed in the Twisting Nether itself, in places where that volatile maelstrom bleeds into mortal worlds, or in areas inundated with the Burning Legion's energies.World of Warcraft: Chronicle Volume 1 pg. 25-26 on iBooks Energies can be so chaotic that they manifest as pure fel magic, entropic horrors given form to lash out at all life,Quest:Collecting Corruption and the demon's chaotic energies can rip apart and remake beings as skeletal Liches - twisted, spectral abberations.Warcraft III:Reign of Chaos Game Manual - Kil'jaeden and the New Deal When asked how demons are alive since they contain fel magic, Sean Copeland stated, "it's magic ;)". If anything though, demons are undead - and warlocks—who bind demons to their will—are necromancers. File:Justicar Nimzi Banedrizzle.jpg|Justicar Nimzi Banedrizzle: "One must be careful when burying a warlock, lest the gravesite become corrupted." - Maleo the Blur File:Kena Shadowbrand.jpg|Kena Shadowbrand: Warlocks have the ability to convert their own life force into rewards - both material and evanescent. File:Shadows of Death.jpg|Shadows of Death: "Rhuunom will only be gone for a moment. Can you say the same for yourself?" - Felbender Lara According to Justin Parker, warlocks have overlapping abilities with necromancers but pursue a different discipline.Justin Parker on Twitter (broken link) However, the definition of a necromancer is a practitioner of necromancy. If warlocks have necromantic abilities and practice necromancy, warlocks are necromancers. Destruction File:Shadow and Flame TCG.jpg|Shadow and Flame: "Diversify." - Harnessing Shadows by Lady Sevine File:Mazar.jpg|Mazar: "Many authorities on fel magic have thoroughly calculated that it will ultimate consume all who attempt to master it. Until that day arrives, though - wohoo! File:Soul Trap.jpg|Soul Trap: Fel magic has a profound effect on the soul - both the victim's and the warlock's. The destruction warlock is well-versed in discharging a dizzying array of shadow, fel, fire, and chaos magics upon opponents that rattle souls and conflagrate bodies. They require little motivation for the havoc they wreak, happy to revel in the destruction they cause—thrilled at any opportunity to watch the world erupt in discord around them. In battle, warlocks who command the power of destruction favor incantations of pure chaos and aggression. In this regard, they’d find a stronger kinship with fire mages than warlocks of other disciplines—if not for their propensity to make use of magic deemed detestable by all mage orders.World of Warcraft > Legion Class Preview Series: Warlock Demonic Resources Warlocks make use of burning embers, demonic fury or soul shards to empower their own spells, making them swifter or more deadly.World of Warcraft > Game Guide > Classes > Warlock References Category:Lore Category:Class